(NECN/WCNC: Michelle Boudin) - Three children were rushed to the hospital after a tornado struck their Charlotte, North Carolina home early Saturday.
One of them, a 7-year-old boy, was sucked from the house and tossed onto nearby Interstate 485.
"I heard the rain, then I just heard this sound and it seemed like it sucked the house up," said grandmother Patricia Stevens.
She was asleep downstairs.
Her son, daughter-in-law and four grandkids were upstairs when the funnel cloud sheared off the second story of their home where they were sleeping.
"As they say go to the bathroom, I opened the door, the bathroom was gone, totally gone," Stevens said.
In fact, most of the home was missing.
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So were three of the kids.
Three-year-old Ashley was okay.
Her twin was still in the house, but under debris.
A neighbor screamed that she found 5-year-old Ayanna, who had landed in her yard.
Jamal though, was gone.
"Then they had the flashlight out the back trying to find Jamal. He's not in the yard, but we could hear him and we kept saying can you stand up, can you stand up?" said Stevens.
The 7-year-old had landed 350 feet away on Interstate 485.
"That's how far it had sucked him out and plopped him down," Stevens said.
Jamal is banged up, but out of the hospital and resting on his grandfather's couch.
He asked his dad if his favorite Christmas present, his Xbox, was okay.
Ayanna and one of the twins are both still in the hospital.
Patricia went back to the house Saturday afternoon and says looking at it proves it's a miracle they all made it out.
"I looked at the house and started crying, I couldn't believe we got out of there," she said.
